


if you cry out i'll be there now

by thrace



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mythology, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 14:54:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14022666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thrace/pseuds/thrace
Summary: The unnamed statue in front Clarke's art building is a mystery she's determined to solve.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a prompt: "AU where there's this statue of a legendary warrior and stateswoman in front of Clarke's college and one night, while out partying with her friends she gets a little tipsy and they dare her to kiss the statue and when she does, it suddenly comes to life." 
> 
> This strayed badly from the prompt almost from the start, but I hope you enjoy it.

Clarke stops in her tracks as she exits the fine arts building, caught in the middle of sliding on her sunglasses to block out the mid-afternoon sun. “What’s happening here?” she asks, staring at the section of courtyard marked off by wooden stakes and construction tape and a few orange cones. The brick within the staked-off area has already been pulled up, revealing packed hard earth underneath. 

“Oh good,” says Lincoln, coming up from behind her. “They’re moving the statue.”

“What statue?”

“The one in front of the econ building. You know.”

Clarke pushes her sunglasses up her nose and stares at Lincoln. 

“The warrior statue? The campus is famous for it? It’s on the cover of a ton of our brochures?” Lincoln sighs. “Have you ever even been to the econ building?”

“Why would I ever go to that part of campus,” Clarke says flatly, one hand gripping the strap of her satchel. 

“For class. Meeting people. Ever leaving the fine arts building,” Lincoln says with steady exasperation. He starts walking, Clarke jogging a few steps to catch up. “It’s what you do when you’re not a tortured artist.”

“I’m not _tortured_ ,” Clarke says with the tone of someone who has been losing this particular argument for years but refuses to give up. “I’m just dedicated.”

“Well anyway admin thinks because the econ building isn’t really close to the center of campus they should move the statue here,” Lincoln says. 

“That’s our administration. Always hustling to push enrollment and please donors.” Clarke tilts her head up, enjoying the weather, already thinking ahead to dinner somewhere outside, preferably with a bottle of wine. 

“I like it,” Lincoln says, but by then Clarke has moved on to pizza or burgers, and the statue is forgotten for the night.

*

Clarke isn’t exactly lonely, but she is by her lonesome a lot, usually by design. She likes holing up in her tiny studio space in the fine arts building, sometimes overnighting and emerging for a random class the next day groggy and nonverbal, still lost in contemplation of her work. At least all of her general requirements are out of the way, letting her spend her senior year mostly focusing on her final semester project. Lincoln sometimes pokes his head in to remind her to eat or sleep or to simply leave behind a steaming cup of coffee, and every other weekend or so she might find herself with their little shared pool of friends hitting an art exhibit or enjoying dinner. But her art is her life and her life has been an unending search for that perfect expression of – well, she’ll know it when she finds it. Her professors can lavish praise on her and her classmates can be awed and jealous of her but Clarke has yet to produce anything that is truly, singularly representational. 

She disappears into her studio on a Thursday morning and pokes her head out nearly twenty-four hours later, stomach gnawing and eyes rimmed red, a dull ache in her neck from hunching too much in front of her canvas. And standing tall in the courtyard, resting on a five-foot plain stone plinth, is the statue. 

It faces away from the fine arts building and Clarke has to circle the base of the statue to peer up into its face. _Her_ face. Late morning sun slants down over the both of them, directly onto the front of the statue, illuminating the stern planes of her face, the waves of loose hair cascading over her armor. She’s caught in the act of striding forward, one arm crossing her body with her hand just about to draw forth her sword, calf-length cape gently swirling behind her. The sculptor somehow captured an urgency to her, a sense of motion perpetually stilled yet perpetually striving to break free. She looks fierce, covered in beautifully-embossed leather, neither time nor weather stripping away the details.

Clarke stares up at her, those sharp gray eyes focused on something in front of her, something in her way that Clarke thinks wouldn’t be there for long if the warrior were truly alive. She stares until she blinks suddenly, completely unaware of how long she’s been standing there, except that she has a slight crick in her neck. She cracks her spine with a few practiced movements and makes to hurry away, but something pushes her closer to the plinth, her hand lifting and trailing along the smooth stone almost of its own volition. 

The statue is sun-warm, practically alive, and Clarke feels the urge to linger steal over her almost without noticing until her phone chirps with a text, and then she does manage to hurry away with the impossible sensation of being followed by a pair of stony grey eyes.

*

It’s ridiculous to avoid eye contact with a statue, but Clarke can’t make herself look at the warrior every time she has to come or go from the fine arts building. She wants to, so badly that it feels like a compulsion, like a hand on the back of her neck trying to force her to look. But the statue twists something soft in her gut, something she doesn’t understand, that she has never felt before and isn't quite ready to feel now. The only thing she can see that might help with that twisting unknown is retreating to the knowledge and control she finds in her art. 

But that is no refuge either. She seems now to know always where the statue is in relation to her body, even buried deep in her studio, even all the way across campus in her dorm. 

“Lincoln,” Clarke says one day at lunch, sunglasses firmly on to hide the dark bags under her eyes, though they do nothing for how her skin has turned even paler, almost sallow from exhaustion. “The statue in front of McLeod. Who is it of?”

Lincoln shrugs, halfway through an enormous salad. “Some historical figure I guess. I never really looked it up. She’s just the warrior statue.”

Sitting in broad daylight with Lincoln for company, Clarke feels confident enough to at least look at a picture of the statue on her phone. She googles it, trying not to let on how her fingers buzz slightly from too much caffeine. There are a lot of pictures, mostly students partially braced on the plinth, one hand rubbing the statue’s feet or holding on to her legs. On the university website, a simple paragraph as part of a longer description of campus highlights. 

_The warrior maiden has a new home in front of the McLeod Fine Arts Building, closer to the center of campus. This statue has been a silent sentinel since the university’s founding in 1919. Unfortunately, the records of her whereabouts before 1919 were destroyed in a fire that consumed the original administration building in 1921. Historians believe the statue was bequeathed as part of the Nieman estate that helped originally found the university, though the Nieman family does not include her in their own records. The only things known for sure is that the statue is not made of native stone and that she is believed to bring good luck to those preparing for final exams. You may see students rub the statue’s feet at the end of the semester in a time-honored ritual._

Clarke can’t help but fixate on a close up of the statue’s face, her features seeming less stern when not viewed from ten feet below. She looks young, no wrinkles except the slight indent between her eyes as she forms the beginning of a frown. Clarke takes a moment to really admire the quality of detail, how none of it seems overwrought or too sharp. But for the coloration the statue could be a real human. 

“What’d you find out?” Lincoln asks, arugula hanging out of his mouth.

Clarke sets her phone on the table face down. “Just the stuff they tell tour groups. She was here when they founded the university, stuff like that.”

“So about a hundred years old. She can’t be much older than that or else they take really good care of her. She looks like she got sculpted yesterday,” Lincoln says. 

Clarke hums noncommittally, as though she’s satisfied with the answer, but she only has more questions.

*

The admin department is decidedly unhelpful when she asks about the statue, merely guiding her to the paragraph about her on the website. The history department is marginally better, eventually guiding her to a cramped, musty office tucked down a hallway and around a dimly-lit bend. “Hello?” Clarke calls as she knocks on the partially askew office door.

“Office hours are over,” says a sharp, cranky voice inside. 

Clarke pushes the door all the way open, revealing a desk piled with papers and books, surrounded by shelves crammed with more books, hemming in a woman who can’t be much older than her. “Professor Foster?” she asks.

The foxlike woman behind the desk narrows her eyes at Clarke, who feels suddenly like taking a step back. The other woman is on the smaller side, swathed in an overlarge cardigan, but for all that she seems as though she could literally bite off Clarke’s head without much effort. “Can I help you?” she asks.

“Uh. My name is Clarke and I just have a question about some campus history,” she says, wondering if maybe she should just turn back now. 

Those dark eyes somehow manage to sharpen in intensity, like seeing a cat’s pupils dilate just before the fatal pounce. “Sure,” says Foster. 

“Um, it’s about the warrior statue in front of the fine arts building,” Clarke says. She tries not to wring her hands, feeling very much that she would like to retain as much dignity as possible in front of this woman. “I looked it up on the university’s website but do you know where she comes from? Like, who donated her?” 

“Why do you want to know?” Foster asks, leaning forward, seeming suddenly very interested in the answer.

“Uh. I guess I just like the statue? I’m an art major. Painting, but you know. I appreciate all good art,” Clarke says. It feels like a lie and sounds like a lie, and yet she has no better answer. It’s the only truth she can fathom right now, and she offers it to Foster with all the humility of a freshman on her first day of class. 

Another weighing stare that makes Clarke want to squirm, though for some reason she feels it extremely important that she hold her ground. “Well,” Foster says at last, leaning back in her chair, “No one is really sure. But I can tell you this: that statue is probably older than you think.”

“What makes you think that?”

A shrug, too casual to really be casual. Clarke might have just met this woman, but she can tell that much. “Unconfirmed oral histories. Nothing concrete. I’ve always wanted to carbon-date it, but the university doesn’t want to front the money and resources when they think it’s only a couple hundred years old at most.”

“Isn’t it?” Clarke asks. “I mean, if it were older than that wouldn’t it be weathered or just…not in good condition?”

“That would be the point of asking the question,” says Foster. “Any other questions?”

“Oh. Uh, no. Thank you for your time,” Clarke says, and makes her retreat as quickly as possible without looking like she’s running away.

*

_float freefall weightless hand reach impulse energy channel energy energy energy flow form growth convert cycle withdraw restore new impulse reach energy warm ground feet ground warm soft-_

Clarke fades back into consciousness, groggy and uncertain of anything except an urgent need to pee. She stumbles off her bed and into the bathroom down the hall, head drooping while she empties her bladder, and then stumbles right back into bed. Five minutes later, her hand gropes towards the end of her bed until it finds her phone somewhere underneath her pillow. She at last had the presence of mind to plug it in, so the screen blinks brightly up at her as it informs her that it is past noon. 

Fortunately it’s Saturday, and so she lets herself doze for another half hour before the next biological urge strikes in a wave of hunger. She definitely didn’t eat dinner last night, caught up in her work, spurred by some furious font of creation. What she left on the canvas was unsatisfying, still unable to capture the omnipresent feeling growing inside her. She could say it was the statue, but it’s been growing inside her all her life, only now it roars within her instead of murmurs. She _must_ create, or the impulse will consume her like a fever.

Eventually she rolls onto her back and lets her eyes stay open for longer than a few seconds, the last fog of sleep clearing from her brain, along with the defining edges of a dream she couldn’t describe now if her life depended on it. She’s left only with the sense memory of the thing, an ephemeral haze of light and warmth. It was a positive dream, she can at least say that. 

Her stomach rumbles menacingly, followed by a sharp internal creak just shy of a cramp. Probably almost twenty-four hours without food now by her reckoning, which is no good for someone who needs to feed calories to her precious artist brain. She rolls out of bed once more, stripping off yesterday’s shirt and exchanging it for another one from a mostly clean pile. She scrapes her hair back into a ponytail, finds her sunglasses, keys, and wallet, unplugs her cell phone, and shuffles out in search of brunch.

Normally Clarke would relax on a Saturday; even she needs breaks sometimes. She checks her phone to see if any of her group chats have plans, but it’s radio silence. It’s only a stopgap measure; Clarke knows where she really wants to be. At the tail end of her eggs benny and green shake, she gives up on pretense and begins the fifteen-minute hike over to the fine arts building. This time she stops at the statue again, studying it from different angles. 

She circles the plinth once, spiraling in close until she’s within reach of the statue’s feet. If students have been rubbing her feet for decades asking for luck, Clarke can’t see any evidence of wear. The artist styled her in sandals laced up to mid-calf, and the way the leather cuts slightly into the skin, the way her feet seem balanced against the plinth, every detail feels real and urgent.

She looks up at the statue, though she can barely see the face from this angle. “Luck,” she murmurs to herself, and reaches out to let her fingertips brush the top of one foot. 

_warm ground walk warm soft_

Clarke stumbles back, almost tripping over her own feet. She has to catch her breath from the shock, the spike of surprise. It was like – she can’t even admit it to herself, not in so many words. But she knows. She knows what she felt. It felt as though she were brushing real skin, human skin, blood rushing under the warm surface.

“Clarke.”

She whips around, though she’s already so startled that seeing Professor Foster only a few yards away can’t push her any further off her equilibrium. “Oh. Hi. Um. Hi. I didn’t see you there.”

“I was just walking over. You got me thinking about her,” says Professor Foster, though her eyes remain Clarke, scanning up and down without subtlety. 

Clarke has to take a deep, deliberate breath before she can speak normally again. “Thinking about her? How?”

“The usual. Where did she come from, who sculpted her, was she based on a real person. It’s quite a good sculpture, you’d think someone would want credit,” Foster says.

“Maybe the sculptor just wanted to create something. It’s a powerful feeling, pure creation,” Clarke says.

Foster couldn’t have made Clarke feel more observed if she pulled out a pair of binoculars and zoomed in on her right there. “Pure creation?”

“I guess that’s, you know, artist ego or whatever. But sometimes it’s enough to create and just put something new in the world. It’s not about, you know, your name. Your brand.” Clarke makes a face on “brand,” her disgust clear. 

“I thought all you artists were about your brand these days,” Foster says, but with a hint of humor tugging one corner of her mouth. 

Clarke shrugs, still struggling to right her sense of balance and make sense of what she felt. She can suddenly feel how warm it is outside, hear the sounds of cars and rustling leaves and distant laughs. The scrape of her own feet on the brick as she shifts her weight is like a dozen concrete blocks rubbing together. Her fingertips tingle magnetically and she wants to touch the statue again – touch _her_. But the sensation was so strange, and not in front of Foster, who is standing there with her arms folded, clearly waiting to see what Clarke does next.

“I have to…” Clarke points at the entrance to the fine arts building. 

“On a Saturday?”

“Have to go build my brand,” Clarke says, earning her an outright smirk. 

“I’ll let you know if I have any new thoughts about her,” Foster says, not moving from her spot by the statue.

“Sure. Thanks,” Clarke says, before reluctantly carding herself into the building.

*

“You look different. Less terrible than usual,” Raven says over dinner. Lincoln immediately turns to peer at Clarke, who rolls her eyes.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Did you finally stop sleeping in your studio?” Lincoln asks from his spot next to her.

“I don't sleep in my studio anymore,” Clarke says, rather unconvincingly. Raven and Lincoln exchange looks, not bothering to hide them from Clarke. “I don't,” she insists, keeping the technicality that she slept in her studio two nights ago to herself. 

The three of them lapse into silence, broken only by chewing as they finish their meals. 

“Anyway, you’ve slept in McLeod too,” Clarke says.

“Like once a semester, not every week,” Raven says. “And my dorm is a lot farther away than yours.” 

“I feel fine,” Clarke says, and this time means it. She’s a little tired, but energized at the same time, completely focused on her work, on expressing the bloom inside her own body. Ever since she touched the statue, though that's not a thought she ever allows to linger for long. 

There’s no capturing whatever it is, just hours at a time spent in a near-trance state letting herself act as a conduit until she blinks herself back into the tangible world. Her largest canvas can’t possibly hold the multitude of thought that needs sorting, and yet it must. There’s something waiting for her at the end, something that could change her life, her world. Her, Clarke. 

Afterwards, Clarke hopes the two of them will split off, perhaps go find their partners or some other friends. But Raven sticks by her side, unerringly pointing back at the fine arts building. “I have a shit ton of welding to finish,” she says as they cross the park bordering campus. She doesn’t say much else as they approach the front entrance, although she glances up at the statue, which naturally draws the eye from its prominent spot front and center.

“This statue is amazing,” Raven says, stopping for a moment, gazing up at the warrior’s face. 

“I…yeah. I guess it is,” Clarke says, trying not to let on how much she’s drawn forward and up. 

“Look at the detail. The proportion. She looks like Medusa froze someone,” Raven says, admiration clear in her voice. “If I could I’d go back and work in stone instead of metal.”

“You would not,” Clarke scoffs, and Raven gives in with an easy grin.

“Yeah.”

Raven shuffles up to the statue, pushing onto her tip-toes, hand reaching up over the top edge of the plinth to touch the warrior’s foot. Clarke almost holds her breath, waiting for Raven’s reaction. But her fingers simply brush down from ankle towards her toes before she rests firmly on the ground again. “Could really use an A this semester,” she says.

“You’ll do great,” Clarke says, automatically supportive, but with her attention split in half. She wonders if maybe she imagined it, what she felt when she touched the warrior. She hasn’t tried again since that Saturday almost two weeks ago, when Professor Foster found her. She wonders if perhaps she should return to Foster, ask for help with her suspicions. The woman is highly intimidating though, and Clarke doesn’t feel like embarrassing herself in front of faculty any more than she has to. 

Raven cards them into the building and Clarke splits off to her studio while Raven heads to the metalworking shop in the back, but something makes her pause before her hand can wave her card in front of the security pad. She checks both ways down the hallway and sees that she’s alone; normally the building is still busy after dinner with night owl art students, but it’s Friday and everyone is probably out trying to forget about the looming end of semester in a few months. 

Her feet carry her back out to the stairwell, down to the ground floor, out to the statue, looming like a spire in the new darkness that follows on from sunset. Clarke circles the plinth a few times, hand trailing along its cool, smooth surface. “Who are you?” she dares to wonder aloud. 

There’s a park bench nearby, and Clarke makes herself comfortable, legs drawn up so she can fold her arms on her knees and rest her chin on top. The bench faces the statue about thirty degrees off of head on, but Clarke can feel the weight of her stare anyway. 

It's certainly a well-made piece of art. The student in her can appreciate that. Raven was right; she looks as lifelike as a statue can look, ready to spring forward at a moment’s notice. Clarke can practically see her striding forward and wants to follow her, wants to follow that dynamism. She has nothing but her imagination to fill in the gaps of this anonymous warrior’s life, if she ever really lived, but as Clarke scans slowly over her features, she thinks she can see courage, and thoughtfulness, and determination. She feels…reassured. 

Clarke doesn’t keep track of how long she sits with the statue, but when Raven comes sauntering out of the entrance, arms above her head in an effort to stretch her spine, she stumbles to a surprised stop when she sees Clarke. “Have you been out here the entire time?” she asks.

“Uh,” Clarke says.

“Dude I’ve been welding for almost three hours,” Raven says. 

Clarke can suddenly feel the ache in her back, the stiffness in her knees. “Oh.”

“Are you okay? I think you should go back to the dorm and get some sleep,” Raven says.

“I’m – no, I’m okay,” Clarke says, shaking her head, trying to unfold her body with some grace. 

“If you’re worried about your semester project, maybe you should talk to your adviser or something. Just take a break for a day.”

“Really, I’m okay,” Clarke says. She finally stands up to her full height, imitating Raven with her own overhead stretches. “I’m, you know. Getting inspiration.”

“It’s not that good a statue,” Raven says, only half joking, throwing a frown over her shoulder at the warrior. 

Part of Clarke wants to argue, but Raven has jolted her too far back into their world, like losing the last of a dream and knowing that it’s time to wake up. “I’m gonna go home.”

“Okay,” Raven says, voice drawling a little with her suspicion. “Text me when you get there.”

“Text me back when you get home,” Clarke replies, and makes herself leave. 

*

Clarke has resisted until now, but after pacing her tiny single several times, she finally digs out a sketchpad and begins committing the statue to paper. It’s harder without a direct reference and not having seen it from any perspective but below, but she draws what she remembers, and she remembers surprisingly well. The proportions of her body first: the long, lean legs, the wiry arms and small torso, the graceful strength of her neck, the hair curling around her face. Her face, also surprisingly easy to assemble. Big clear eyes, noble brow, full mouth, petite nose. The details of her armor, the leather emerging soft and supple under the tip of Clarke’s pencil. The way her cape drapes from her shoulders down her back, swirls gently around her ankles. It’s all there, waiting for her.

Clarke tears the page out when she’s done, taping it up on the wall by her bed. She sits cross-legged, staring at it, at her. Eventually she lies down, and her eyes drift shut, and she sleeps.

_earth real warm so solid! muscles push pull push pull walking unaccustomed touch soft hard soft new real untethered reconnect new tether free mortal oh mortal-_

Her body needed the rest, Clarke can tell by how refreshed she feels when she wakes up to the warm murmur of a Saturday morning in spring. The picture is waiting for her, standing silent watch over her. More sense memories, stronger this time. A touch, maybe a hand in hers. Wondrous marveling, a sense of excitement at the birth of something new. The pleasant churn of apprehension and anticipation in her stomach before taking a leap of faith. 

She packs her sketchbook in her satchel along with a metal canteen of water and her phone charger and bustles out of her room. 

Just outside of the fine arts building, she pauses, contemplating angles. The bench will be more comfortable, but she wants a more comprehensive sense of the warrior. She chooses to sit on the steps of McLeod at first, a bit in the way but hopefully not too many students will be in and out on a Saturday. 

From this angle it’s mostly the warrior’s hair and cape and the scabbard of her sword. Clarke can feel the soft drape of the material as her hands guide the pencil in smooth, sure strokes down the page. It would have felt rich, but not too heavy, hanging lightly from her shoulders. Soft, smelling of well-kept leather and a bit of woodsmoke and perhaps a hint of horse around the edges. She can almost imagine the way it would fall over her fingers, slithering quietly in a hiss of fabric. 

It strikes Clarke like a bolt out of the blue that she _can_ remember that cape. She has a flash of how it would flap to the side in a breeze, then drape back into place. She has an idea of what to do next but can’t quite push herself to her feet to do it for a few moments. It’s foolish, but also the only thing that makes sense, and finally she yanks herself upright in one jerky movement and manages the handful of steps to the statue. It’s a bit of a reach; Clarke can just about see over the top of the plinth and with her arm fully stretched overhead her hand snags the edge of the cape.

And it’s not soft, it doesn’t ripple under her touch, but she can see how it would, she knows that it should. 

Clarke stuffs her sketchpad and pencils back into her bag in a hurry and takes off for the history building, hoping she won’t find an empty office. 

The door to Professor Foster’s office is once again slightly ajar and Clarke heaves a silent sigh of relief as she knocks, still trying to catch her breath from her dash across campus. “Hello?” 

A creak from an office chair turning around and Foster comes into view, leveling her usual borderline glare directly at Clarke. “You again.”

“I’m sorry if I interrupted, but I just have more questions about the warrior statue,” Clarke says. 

To her surprise, Foster gestures to one of two old chairs in front of her desk, looking like the vinyl upholstery might crack and sprout stuffing at any second. Clarke perches on the edge of the chair, one hand gripping her satchel strap. “So what is it you want to know?” Foster asks.

“I think you should carbon date the statue,” Clarke says. 

“Oh? Have you found something to indicate it might be older than we think?” Foster asks, giving Clarke mild eyebrow. 

“I don’t know. I think. I mean. There’s something different about it. Unusual.” Clarke tries not to stammer as she tries to push Foster towards a yes without outright lying. 

“Is that a yes or no?”

Clarke grips her satchel strap tighter. “I don’t have any concrete proof,” she finally admits. 

“You seem pretty convinced for someone without proof,” says Foster.

Clarke crosses her other arm across her stomach, hugging herself, searching her innermost feelings. It’s confusing, to know so little and yet also be completely sure that this road she must travel. “I just know that we need to know more.” Her mind whirls, spitting out a possible thread; she seizes on it and tugs. “I mean, what if the statue is older than it appears? It would be great publicity for the university. They could get a lot of attention, maybe get some grants or funding or something.”

Foster leans back in her chair, where her expression shifts like quicksilver from moody to something almost knowing. “Well don’t tell me, go convince the guys in the archaeology department.”

*

Clarke has to wait until Monday, but at least Foster doesn’t make her go it alone. The possibility of an archaeological mystery coupled with some sharp prodding from Foster and her flat but sincere promise that she’ll owe the department an extravagant favor earns them a test scheduled for the next day. Afterwards, the pair of them amble around campus, the warrior at the center of their meandering loops. 

“What made you want to know more? Why now?” Foster asks, hands in her pockets. Clarke isn’t deceived by her laid-back tone or posture; the woman is probably intense even in her sleep, and she seems to circle the question of the statute almost as much as Clarke. 

“I guess the curiosity just got to me,” Clarke says. She’s told Foster as much as she’s told anyone, but she can’t trust her with the rest of it just yet. The dreams, the sensations, the things she can only describe as _memories_. The world increasingly feels like the liminal space between true sleep and full wakefulness, where she is aware and not aware, still skimming just under the dreaming threshold but also sensing that it’s all slipping away. It would be disorienting without her fixed point: the warrior, proud and silent and watchful. 

Foster just makes a thoughtful humming sound that Clarke can’t interpret at all. 

“Why did you agree to help me?” Clarke asks instead. 

“I guess the curiosity just got to me,” Foster says, amused by her own wit and Clarke’s exasperated reaction. 

Clarke tries again. “What do you think they’ll find?” 

Foster seems to seriously consider this for a few moments. “Whatever it is, I hope it’s only the beginning,” she says. 

The beginning of what, she doesn’t specify, and Clarke doesn’t think she’s ready to pursue any further. They eventually close in on the statue itself and stand together in front of her, two supplicants waiting for a benediction that will never come. “I can’t believe I never even knew she was here until they moved her,” Clarke says.

“You’re a senior?” Foster asks, waiting for confirmation. “You wouldn’t be the first one to get tunnel vision.”

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve been like that pretty much as soon as I knew I wanted to be an artist,” Clarke says. “My friends always tell me I work too much. Even my parents…” She hadn’t expected to think about her father, and the sudden mention of him, even from her own lips, requires a pause to compose herself. “Anyway, I guess I just thought I was focused. In love with the art, you know?”

“You’re a creator,” Foster says, a simple pronouncement, but a profound one for the way it lands solemnly on Clarke. 

“I guess. Yeah. It’s always been a need for me,” she says. 

“Don’t let me keep you,” Foster says, turning away from the statue. “Go create, or whatever it is you artists need to do.”

“You’re not going to tell me to go get some sleep?” Clarke asks, surprise taking the edge off her sarcasm.

Foster snorts. “What am I, your mother? I don’t care as long as it’s not against university rules.”

It’s refreshing to have someone just tell her to go and be Clarke, whatever or whoever that is. Clarke tries to tamp down on a grin, suspecting that would just drive Foster even further into a pocket of studied not-caring. “I’ll see you here tomorrow.”

“Whatever,” Foster says, but Clarke doesn’t miss how she once again stares up at the statue in anticipation.

*

The archaeology department sets up scaffolding all around the statue, allowing them to climb up to the crown of her head some ten-plus feet above the ground. Clarke withdraws to the front steps of the fine arts building and watches them clamber around her, taking samples from agreed-upon points that won’t compromise her appearance too much. 

“It’s mass spec so we don’t need a lot,” says Doctor Kane, the head of the archaeology department from his supervisory spot on the ground a few feet away. Still, it sets her on edge a bit, seeing them behave so familiarly with her, even though she can tell they’re being as careful as possible. Foster is somewhere, lurking around, popping up next to Clarke from time to time and breathing down the necks of several terrified grad students, which mollifies Clarke somewhat. Eventually they climb down, capping samples and closing up boxes. 

“We’ll pull down the scaffolding after the dating is finished. Might need to come back for more samples,” says Kane.

“What’s the timeline on results?” Foster asks, back from her prowling. 

“Well it only takes a few hours to run a sample, but there’s always a queue, and we’ll want to run a couple tests to be sure. End of week?” Kane says. 

“See you Friday then,” Foster says, the words almost coming out as a threat. Kane seems used to her surliness though because he just shakes her hand and collects his grad students, most of whom look relieved to have him as a buffer.

Clarke somehow manages to fill the time until Friday. She does her best to focus on her semester project, although the warrior still manages to creep in here and there. She doesn’t mind though, not when her work takes on added vibrancy, a sense of emotion long repressed. The compulsion is different now – painting not because she can’t think of anything else, but because she only wants to think of painting. She embraces it in a way that has felt denied to her before, and when Friday arrives she finds a medium-sized canvas of the warrior staring back at her in full, regal color. The warrior rests underneath a tree with her cape spread out underneath her, sword nearby, calmly biting into a ripe fig. A scene she has no way to remember, yet cannot help but remember. 

Clarke is waiting out by the warrior at nine on the dot on Friday morning. She sits on the scaffolding, still erected around the statue, and sips her coffee while one leg jiggles against the ground. She and Foster hadn’t made any specific plans to meet up today, but she somehow knows to wait here. 

Foster comes along shortly, a file folder dangling from one hand. She stops in front of Clarke, tapping the spine of the folder against her palm. 

Clarke looks up at her expectantly. 

Foster is blunt with her answer. “Eleven thousand years. Give or take.” 

Clarke nearly falls off the scaffolding, just barely managing to catch her coffee cup and set it aside. “ _Thousand?_ ” she repeats, voice climbing almost to a squeak.

“There’s a margin of error, but that’s the closest round number,” Foster says. She holds the folder out to Clarke, who takes it and thumbs through it, looking at graphs and scanning words that have no meaning to her. She slaps it shut and puts it next to her coffee so she can get up and pace.

“Eleven _thousand_ ,” Clarke says again, one hand pressing against her forehead. The enormity of it is having trouble properly sinking in. “That can’t be right.”

Foster is calm and still, only her eyes tracking Clarke back and forth. “You were the one who came to me suggesting something like this might be the case.”

“Yes, but not like…like this! Eleven thousand years old?” Clarke says for the third time. 

“Would you like them to test her again?” Foster asks. 

“How is that even possible? Look at her! She barely looks a hundred years old, if that. What is this statue made of? Was it kept in a museum until it was transferred here? Who made her? Why was her provenance lost?”

“All questions the university has asked me to answer,” Foster says, arms folded, amusement at Clarke’s consternation rapidly growing evident. “You were right. It’s a great find. The archaeology department is already writing up their findings for an article.”

“But…” After being the one to come up with the publicity angle in order to push through the testing, Clarke can’t now admit that she hates the idea of other people coming to see the warrior, pawing at her, scraping away pieces of her. It’s a ridiculous notion but it would be such an invasion of privacy. 

“Why don’t you take some time to think this over,” Foster says. “I’m sure there’s a place for you to help shape the discussion around her. We’ll need plenty of illustrations.”

If Clarke were less frazzled, she might have grown concerned over how Foster seems intentionally to goad her consternation, but instead she just stops pacing and nods, hands on her hips now. “Okay. Okay.” A breath. “Thanks, Professor Foster. For helping me. And uh, congratulations I guess.”

“Don’t congratulate me yet. We don’t have a lot of places to start with research into provenance,” Foster says. 

Clarke starts to swipe the folder up to give it back to Foster, but she shakes her head. “You can hold on to that. I have a copy in my office.” 

“Okay. Thanks,” Clarke says, and Foster turns on her heel and walks away without any further niceties. 

Clarke means to go back to her dorm or the library or her studio or anywhere else really, but she finds herself unable to leave the warrior. She pulls herself up onto the lowest level of scaffolding and traces over the report several times, googling terms on her phone until she has at least a vague idea of the process and the results. Really, the only thing that matters is the final result, and she has no reason to doubt Kane or his very distinguished archaeology department. 

The hours peel off the day and she gets a few looks as people go in and out of McLeod. She doesn’t even have her sketchbook with her, just the remnants of her coffee, the cup long since drained, and the now much-combed-over carbon dating report. Shadows lengthen, the air cools, and still Clarke lies on the scaffolding, as though proximity alone might solve the mystery. As night settles around them and foot traffic trickles away, Clarke finally clambers up to the top level of the scaffolding, where the makeshift landing is even with the warrior’s stomach. There Clarke lays herself out flat, staring up at the sky, wishing all the lights in McLeod and along the nearby pathways would go out so she could see the stars proper.

“You’re ancient,” she says, hands folded on her stomach, face tilted to look at the warrior. From this angle she can see a new detail: the thin cord of a necklace partially exposed against the warrior’s neck, sliding down underneath her leather armor. It’s barely there, the rest of it obscured by hair. Assuming the artist always planned to stand the statue up on the plinth, it’s a detail no one could ever notice from ground level, but Clarke appreciates the commitment to detail. It makes the warrior feel even more human, more like a person who just happens to be caught out of time.

Clarke trails her fingers along the warrior’s arm, bare from just below her triceps down to her elbow, where her gauntlet begins. The muscle there is whipcord tough, taught and lean. There’s no reason the stone should feel that way, but it flexes under her hand all the same. There’s no surprise here, only the satisfaction of expectation fulfilled. 

Clarke pulls herself up onto her knees, settling back on her ankles and getting her first proper look at the warrior face-to-face. She’s all there, everything Clarke remembers about her. The beautiful tilt of her cheekbones, the face somehow still clinging to the very last roundness of youth, the clear eyes and stubborn set to her brow. Clarke’s hand slowly travels the distance and lightly, gently her fingertips press to the warrior’s cheek. 

To her artist’s eye, it’s almost as though the rosiness of healthy skin ripples faintly under her touch. When she removes her hand, the stone remains, as smooth and unperturbed as it probably was eleven thousand years ago. Clarke touches her again, and can _feel_ as much as see the slight give of skin, the reciprocal touch against the pads of her fingers. But still, the stone remains.

“Wake up,” Clarke whispers. To herself, perhaps, as much as the statue. “Please wake up.”

Clarke’s fingers trace the warrior’s hairline, a slow caress from the center of her forehead down to her ear. 

“I’m here. You found me. Wake up.”

Something whispers back, an impression of speech not meant to be heard by ear. An impulse, a goad, a plea. Clarke leans forward from the waist, her forehead coming to rest just on top of the warrior’s. Her lips are close, close enough to leave the faintest hint of moisture when she exhales. Close enough that when she whispers a third time, her lips brush the statue’s brow. Clarke wakes up.


	2. Chapter 2

A promise fulfilled, a proud bloodline loyal through the generations. Protectors, watchers, guides. “We’re so close. She’s almost ready,” says the guardian.

A long, dark watch entering its final hours.

*

Born, reborn, born again. An endless cycle of life only made bearable by each new clean slate. A single but defining mercy, to not be burdened with the millennia. This cycle: a happy childhood, although a cautious adulthood. Mortal life is always so unpredictable. 

*

Civilizations falling, rising, consuming themselves, transforming, burning to ash, rebuilding.

*

_Mama, have we angered the gods?_

_Be hush, child._

_Why are we offering so much at temple?_

_It’s not given for us to know the reason why, just that the gods demand and we answer._

_But mama-_

_If you are silent, I will tell you a story that my mother told me and her mother told her, and her mother told her, and so on before her. Does this satisfy you? Ah hah, wise child.  
_

The smell of incense, something unnamable, unknown to the modern sense of smell. Sheaves of grain, platters of fruit, glistening cuts of meat. Echoing stone and marble halls. A cool, breezy dusk, heat fleeing quickly without the sun and fall poised to steal over the land.

_What about now mama?_

_You have been patient, and so you shall be rewarded. Here, hold my hand, the crowd is growing heavy._

_There was a goddess, once, very beautiful, and golden all over, who was the goddess of creation. She fell in love with a mortal and wanted to bring her mortal love to heaven to be a god with her, but the other gods were jealous, and conspired against them. They attempted to murder the goddess and the mortal, but the mortal was a great warrior. She fought off the gods, who were so impressed that death himself offered to grant her one wish before dying. She wished only that her love might live, and so before she was sent to the underworld, she was allowed to see the goddess return to heaven. Then she went to the underworld, and the goddess wept, but because she was a goddess of creation, her tears nurtured the earth and made the crops grow and nourished new life. And so death begets life, just as life must wither away in death. Once a year, on the anniversary of the warrior’s death, the goddess weeps, bringing the rains and the flooding of the river, so that when its waters recede we may plant our crops and prosper. That is why we bring offerings, and in particular these offerings, because it has been very dry, and we need the goddess to remember her sorrow._

_All right mama. Should we bring something nice next time? The goddess must be lonely without her love._

* 

_Mama, I’m bored._

_Be hush, child. Wait for the priestess to finish the prayer, then we’ll leave our offerings and go home._

_There, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Help me up, your mama’s knees grow old faster than her._

_Mama, will you tell me a story?_

_Do you think you deserve a story after interrupting prayers?_

_I didn’t interrupt them very much._

_Well. That is true. Let me see. This is a story my mother told me, and her mother told her._

_There was a goddess, once, beautiful and radiant, like a golden sun, and rich as the summer harvest. She was the goddess of creation, and she was much beloved by mortals for her generosity. She was full of all the joy that comes with new life. Her opposite was death, and she did not like him, for she had no power over him. She did not like any part of death, including those who caused it, except that she one day met a great warrior. The warrior was very brave and very noble, and had distinguished herself as a commander in a great war. The goddess saw that she only brought forth death so that she could remove the obstacles to creating more life. She was very wise, and also a woodsman’s daughter, and when the war was over she used her father’s tools to begin to repair what the war had broken. The goddess of creation loved her for this and came to her in mortal form, visiting her as a simple traveler. But as her love for the warrior grew, so too did her despair, for she would not be parted from her love when death came to claim her for his own._

_The goddess attempted to bring her mortal love to heaven to join the gods, to share the gift of immortality. The other gods did not want to share immortality, and they did not want mortals to know that they could become gods as well, and so they conspired to murder the goddess and her lover. While the goddess was visiting the warrior in mortal form, the gods ambushed them. The warrior was too fierce for them, though, and her love for the goddess gave her the strength to fight even the gods. The gods knew they could not defeat her, but neither could she truly defeat them, for a mortal cannot strike down a god. So death offered her a bargain: they would let the goddess live, and promise never to harm her, if the warrior would go willingly with death. Even though the goddess begged her to find another way, the warrior agreed to the bargain. She bade the goddess farewell and was allowed to glimpse heaven as the goddess returned with all her immortal brethren, and then she went with death._

_Still, the goddess wept, and her tears flooded the earth, until she saw that she had forsaken her very essence and caused destruction across the land. Her sorrow became regret, and her tears subsided, and the people found that the earth that had been covered by the goddess’ tears was now rich and good for planting. This was the goddess’ way of apologizing for the harm she caused, although her sorrow is so great that every year she still weeps to mark the loss of her great love. But as a compromise, the goddess’ tears also renew the land, and so she may have her sorrow, and we may have our harvest. Death begets life, and life begets death._

* 

_Mama, will you tell me a story on the way to temple? It’s a long walk._

_Hmm. Would you like a story that my mother told me?_

_Yes please._

_Well. There was a goddess, once, beautiful and radiant, as golden as the sun, as bountiful as the ripe earth. She was a goddess of creation, and she gave with both hands without hesitation. Mortals loved her for her generosity and she loved to be generous to them. She was infinite and ever-renewing and overflowing with the life that gives bounty._

_The only thing the goddess hated was death, but she had no power over death, who took what she put on earth without regard. The realms of the dead belonged to this other god, and he jealously kept his borders and those that dwelled within for all eternity. She also hated those who caused death, and turned away from the pleas of the violent and destructive. Even warriors she would not deign to gaze upon, leaving them to pray to other gods._

_But strife was growing between two great nations: one, driven to conquer and consume, and the other wishing only to be left in peace. Soon there came the time when they must go to war. Great heroes came to the aid of both nations, along with foreign kings and queens, and many nobles and generals of honorable pedigree. But none were so fierce or brave as a humble woodsman’s daughter. She was strong, fleet of foot, and surpassingly beautiful, but countenanced no suitor in favor of learning the ways of war. As she grew, so did her skills with a blade, and when her country let sound the horns of war, she responded without hesitation. Her renown on the battlefield grew quickly, for she was so fierce that no man or woman could touch her in single combat. The other army came to fear her greatly, and enacted many schemes to kill her by treachery or overwhelming force. But her fellow warriors loved her so and her closest friend was skilled in the many subtleties of spy craft, and so they thwarted every attempt on her life. She rose in prominence until she came to command the very army itself, and the final clash between the two nations was so great that the gods themselves perched above to watch and extoll the virtues of their favorites to each other and wager on the final outcome._

_But mama I thought the gods controlled the fate of every mortal-_

_Hush child! That is a lesson for another time. Where was I? Ah yes, the final battle. The woodsman’s daughter was victorious, killing many hundreds herself, and the goddess of creation was sick to her heart, gazing upon the bodies of thousands of dead, while the god of death delighted in so many new beings to add to his realms. He was so pleased that he went to the great commander and offered her a boon, any boon she wished that was in his power to grant. She was frightened to be visited by the god of death, but also wise, and instead of turning down his favor, asked of him if it would be possible to keep the promise of a boon for her moment of greatest need. The god of death was distracted, counting the many souls crossing through the gates of his realm, and so he agreed._

_The commander then released her army to return to their homes, and she took off her weapons and her armor, and was no longer a commander but once again a humble woodsman’s daughter. But her service to her people did not end, for she then took up the tools of father’s trade and began to help rebuild that which had been burned and broken and looted during their long years of war. As the goddess of creation watched, a new nation sprang forth from the commander’s hands, for she inspired others to join her, and in her wisdom was able to shine a brilliant light along the path to a future even brighter than the nation that was before the war. The goddess realized she had wronged the commander in her heart, and as she watched her day by day, gradually came to love her._

_Oh! Did she come to earth to be with her mortal love?_

_Would you prefer to tell this story to me?_

_No mama. Sorry._

_The answer is yes, anyway. The goddess eventually was overcome by love, and also curiosity, and eventually descended to earth to speak to this mortal woman who occupied her every thought. But she took the form of a mortal woman as well, because she did not want to frighten the commander, or be treated falsely. She dressed as a simple traveler in need of shelter for the night and when she knocked on the commander’s door, was welcomed and treated as an honored guest. The commander was humble, and gave her the best choice of meat and the finest wine and her own bed to sleep in while the commander slept on rushes before the fire._

_In the morning, the goddess pretended to leave, but returned after a week, once again in the guise of a traveler. She did this week after week, and each time the commander welcomed her, and fed and clothed her, and asked for nothing in return but the pleasure of her company. The goddess saw that she was kind, and thoughtful, and abhorred the violence of war, but had been willing to fight and die so that others could continue to live instead of giving them up to death. She shared with the goddess a vision of a civilization that would last a thousand thousand years, growing and changing and learning and becoming as wise as the gods._

_The goddess visited the commander once a week for a year, until one day when she was once again to take the commander’s bed while the commander herself slept by the fire, she begged that the commander would not inconvenience herself, and that they should share the bed. The commander agreed, because by now she was in love with the goddess as well, and that night they were not as host and guest, but as two hearts sharing the same home._

_The goddess knew she could not stay indefinitely with the commander, for she was eternal, and her lover was mortal and fated to grow old and eventually join the goddess’ old nemesis, death. She could not bear the pain of this thought, and so she devised that she would bring her mortal lover into the heavens with the other gods and make her immortal as well, so that they might spend eternity together, forever bound as caretakers of the earth._

_The other gods grew alarmed, for they did not wish to share the gift of immortality with mortals, and they were afraid that mortals would find out it was possible to ascend to godhood and would attempt to wage war on heaven. So they conspired in the shadows, led chiefly by the god of death, who was angry at the thought of never again receiving a mortal supplicant at his doorstep. And one day they surprised the goddess when she was in the arms of her love, still in mortal form, and attempted to kill her, so that her soul would flee her mortal body and be trapped in the realms of the dead. But the commander was too great a warrior and fought off the legions of heaven though she took many grave wounds. But she would not be overcome, not while the goddess was in peril, for her love gave her the strength of a hundred warriors. Still, though the gods could not kill the commander, neither could she kill the gods, leaving them locked in stalemate._

_Then the commander remembered that the god of death owed her a boon and planned to ask him to spare her so that she would be with the goddess for the rest of time. The god of death was bound by his word to grant such a boon, but he was crafty as well. He knew that the other gods would not countenance the goddess’ return to heaven, and so she would be trapped in her mortal body. She would grow old and die, but because they could not remove her godhead, she would be reborn over and over again, living out a mortal life cycle in perpetuity._

_Then the commander's oldest friend-_

_Oh, the spy!_

_Well there’s no point in telling you this story if you already know it._

_Sorry mama. I promise I won’t interrupt again._

_A promise is sacred, child._

_I know mama. I promise._

_So. The commander’s oldest friend, the spy, had by now learned something of her friend’s great peril, and came to her home to help her. She leapt forward to try and pierce the god of death with her dagger, for she did not know that he was a god. She only knew her friend had been attacked, and she had sworn an oath to protect her. Death would have laughed to be attacked so by a mortal, but the spy had coated her blade in a powerful poison, and she buried it deep in death’s heart, where it could not kill him, but caused him constant, unending pain._

_The goddess of creation saw her chance and offered a deal to the god of death: she would create for him an antidote to the poison, and in exchange he would not take the commander. She knew the gods would still not allow her to return to heaven, but she could not bear the thought of her love in the hands of death. The god of death agreed, whereupon the commander reminded him that a boon yet remained to be given. Death’s rage was great at this point, but promises are sacred, and so he was bound. Thus, the commander granted a gift to the goddess: she wished that each time the goddess was reborn in her mortal body, she would be able to experience the world anew. She would not be bound to her lover, but would instead be able to enjoy life as any other mortal, taking part in our joys and our sorrows, to feast and go hungry, to seek her own fortunes and to love and hate anew. Death agreed, and the goddess brought forth the cure for the poison._

_But as soon as the deal was concluded, death struck out in his rage, and transformed the commander into stone. The goddess cried out and attempted to denounce death, but he had abided by the letter of their agreement. The commander was not dead, but neither was she really alive. Death had not taken her, but he would not allow the goddess to have her either. The commander would endure forever as a statue of stone, condemned to exist until the end of the time as one frozen between life and death._

_The goddess wept for one hundred days and one hundred nights, and her sorrow was so terrible that the gods took pity on her, for she was still beloved by many of them. It was only that she had thought to defy them that made them turn against her, but now they saw that she was no longer a threat to them. The goddess of love in particular was moved by regret, and she offered a benediction: seeing that love gave the commander the strength to defy all the many gods, including the god of death, love would also give her the power to escape her curse. The goddess of love dared not defy death too directly, at least not until his rage subsided, so she offered this compromise to the goddess of creation: in any of her next lives, a kiss, freely offered, would restore the commander to life once again. And because the goddess might forget as she was born and reborn into innocence over the years, the spy was set to watch over her friend the commander. She and her descendants were granted the favor of the gods so long as they remained faithful to the spy’s oath. And so the task falls to the eldest daughter of the spy’s bloodline to always watch, and to always remember, for promises are sacred._

_So the goddess forgot about her love?_

_Yes. She has lived many lives by now, we think._

_You don’t know where she is?_

_No, child. She is not reborn in the same place each time. The commander wished for her to live rich, full lives, not to linger in the same place, growing heartsick for something she could not name._

_But wouldn’t that make it easier for her to find the commander’s statue again?_

_Since when do the gods make their trials easy for mortals? And anyway by the time the goddess of love was able to make her compromise, the commander had already made her wish. It was a very selfless wish, don’t you think?_

_I think I would want my love to remember me._

_When you’re older you’ll understand the beauty and power of a heart choosing love freely._

_I would always choose you freely, mama._

_My sweet child. You are excused from your chores tonight, except that you must remember to clean and lock the statue room._

*

The fire crackles as Lexa stokes it, preparing to lie down in front of the flames. 

Clarke stands in the doorway of the kitchen, fingertips worrying at each other. “It’s cold tonight,” she says.

“The fire will keep me warm,” Lexa says. 

“The floor is hard.”

“The rushes are soft.”

“I wouldn’t see you suffer.”

“I never suffer when you’re near.” Lexa looks up at her from where she crouches in front of the fire, face burnished by light. Clarke can see little flames flickering in her eyes, and holds out both hands. 

“Come to bed,” Clarke says. “Stay with me.”

Lexa stays crouched a moment longer, then stands up smoothly, leaning the poker against the side of the hearth and reaching out for Clarke. Their hands clasp softly, fingers intertwining. Lexa leans her forehead against Clarke, eyes closing with a little flutter. “Will you have me then?”

“Yes. Always.”

Lexa follows Clarke into the soft glow from a single candle by her bed. She pulls off her pants and shirt and changes into a fresh linen shift that hangs down almost to her knees. Clarke is already dressed for bed, soft and loose and smelling of rosewater. She climbs in first, lying on her side and watching as Lexa follows, lying down to face her. 

Clarke’s hand is a susurration in the dark as it slides across the sheets, reaching up to cup Lexa’s cheek. She marvels at the life under her palm, the way the skin stretches over muscle and bone, how her features arrange themselves so pleasantly, how her hair, so long and thick, seeks to frame her face. “Am I a guest in your home now?”

Lexa hardly blinks, gazing at her. Her hand lands quietly on top of Clarke’s, holding it in place. “I would have it be your home as well.”

“I think,” Clarke says, “It’s time my travels came to an end.”

“I would not bind you to any place you did not wish to remain. Wherever you travel, I will go with you, if you want,” Lexa says. Her voice is light, almost girlish when shared in private like this. Clarke has heard that voice in full-throated roar, urging on a mighty war host. And yet this is the same voice, with the same strength of conviction and clarity of purpose. When she speaks, all Clarke hears is love.

“Anywhere. I would go anywhere with you,” Clarke says. 

Lexa shifts forward, sliding into the dip between their pillows, and presses her lips to Clarke’s. Clarke has waited so long and imagined this moment in every possible way, but even her immortal heart can’t comprehend the sensation of her mortal body, pressed close to one she cherishes. How soft, and lovely, and terrifying, and exultant it would be. Just a touch, lips to lips in the solemn darkness as they share breath between them. She’ll never be able to go back, not after this. As Lexa presses even closer, their legs twining under the blankets, she thinks it would be worth it for this feeling of unending suspension within a single piece of time. It would be worth it. 

“I think I’ve been waiting for this moment the first day you came to my door,” Lexa says, so close that Clarke can feel the tiny movements of her lips as she murmurs the words.

“I’m sorry I made you wait so long.”

Lexa kisses her again. “I would’ve waited longer for you. A lifetime. Ten lifetimes.”

And as Lexa’s arm snakes around her waist, hand drifting to the hemline at her thigh, Clarke begins to consider eternity.

*

**Famed warrior statue stolen**

Local police are baffled by the disappearance of the university’s famed warrior statue, recently relocated across campus to its new home in front of the McLeod Fine Arts Building. Campus police discovered the theft early on Saturday morning and called the authorities. No witnesses have come forward with information about the statue’s whereabouts, and the police have no leads as to who could have taken the statute, according to a police spokesperson.

The warrior statue is, of course, one of the highlights of campus culture, and it was hoped by administration that by moving it to a more central location in front of McLeod that it would contribute to the university’s cultural appeal and provide a point of interest for students and tourists alike. 

A spokesperson from the office of the president gave a statement today, offering total amnesty to whomever took the statute, as long as it is found intact. 

So far, the most popular theory is that this is a student prank, albeit a well-coordinated one. The warrior statue was made of stone, and combined with its pedestal, weighed just over two tons. When campus facilities originally moved the statue to McLeod, it required several pieces of heavy equipment, including a hydraulic crane. Yet there were no reports of any such machinery in the vicinity of McLeod around the time of the theft, although some scaffolding had been erected around the statue by the archeology department, which was carbon dating the statue.

“it’s an incredible loss for the school,” said Doctor Marcus Kane, head of the archaeology department. “We had that statue pegged as being over 11,000 years old according to our mass spec data. Whoever took it has a historical treasure on their hands, and I know the university would greatly appreciate its return, no questions asked.”

If this is a prank, congratulations to the mastermind behind it for such a clean grab – now give the statue back.

NEXT ARTICLE: Professor Anya Foster resigns position in history department

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Formal complaints may be lodged at [badlance](http://badlance.tumblr.com/).


End file.
